Monday, April 10, 2017

Happy Home Opener (mostly)

Starting pitcher:
M.C. O'Connor

4-1 win in SF
Matt Moore dazzled the Opening Day crowd with a sterling 93-pitch effort (3 hits in 8 IP with no walks and 5 whiffs) to subdue the sizzling Arizona Diamondbacks. Their young flamethrower Taijuan Walker had horrified the home audience straight away with a wild fastball that beaned Buster Posey during his first plate appearance. He was taken out of the game.** The Giants didn't retaliate, just relied on Moore to keep the buzz saw running. They then scored three runs on a goofy play in the 4th. Walker, with the bases loaded and one out, Moore batting, tried to field a swinging bunt and his throw home to get the force got past the catcher. Two runs scored, and a bad throw by the catcher allowed a third, Moore wound up at second. The Giants put a lot of guys on but couldn't get a big hit, 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. But they cashed in on the fielding lapses, and that's good baseball, particularly when your guys make big stops and turn hits into outs.

But Moore was the man today, and that's the formula for the orange-and-black, get a big start. Yasmany Tomas hit a homer leading off the 5th but that's all Arizona could muster, the lefty was particularly strong at the end, throwing seven pitches in the 7th and eleven in the 8th. Happy to see Jarrett Parker get something going, a walk and a hit, he scored the third run on that nutty sequence, that was good baserunning by the Giants overall. I was also happy they scored another run late and even happier that FNG Mark Melancon got the last three outs. Wins are good. Wins are always good. Let's have some more. Jeff Samardzija tomorrow night.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

**At the time of this posting all the info on Buster's injury has been that he's OK and no roster move likely.

Arguing is easy and requires little or no energy, or even original thought. Keeping a level head for a full season is much harder, don't you think? I was listening to Andy Green after Sunday's game and he talked about the Pence and Posey back-to-back homers. His guy made two good pitches and still got burned! I mean, he focused on the positive (his pitcher executed the game plan) despite the lousy outcome. That's a hell of a skill, essential to a manager, I suppose. How do you learn to do that?

I'm puzzled. Blackburn is DFA, so we may lose him. Fedorowicz can't be sent back to AAA, can he, without exposure to waivers? That is, are we risking the loss of two valuable players so that Posey can be on the DL for a week?

@campanari: I felt the same way about Blackburn and Fedorowicz, that we could end up losing both so that Posey can be on the DL for a week. However, with Brown, the only other C on the 40-man otherwise injured and unavailable, there seemed to have been no other alternative, looking over the list, this was one cut that was going to hurt no matter what.

The other choices were Crick, Gregorio, Moronta, Okert, Osich, Slania, Stratton, Suarez, Calixte, Gomez, Tomlinson, Williamson. No really obvious choices, not that Black and Gardeck were that obvious either before. That's the status of our 40-man for the past couple of years, DFAs hurt more, as interesting prospects get moved on, and that's probably part of the reason the Giants have to do more trades, so that they get better value rather than be forced to give up Blackburn for a seemingly nothing low level prospect.

Crick would have been the most obvious, before spring. Personally, haven't ever been impressed by Stratton's numbers, but the talk I've seen is that he's finally mentally recovered from getting hit and returning to what he was like before the injury. Still, Blackburn did great in AAA not that long ago, before regressing last season, suggesting the Giants believe that he was lucky in 2015 and that 2016 is closer to what his true talent level is, why else chose Stratton over Blackburn. And they must really like Calixte.

And yeah, FedEx will be exposed once Posey is back, that's probably why they have another C holed up in AAA, just in case they lose some bodies. But they needed a backup catcher, and this was the only way to get one on the 25-man roster.